Summer, Lebanon Reservoir History & the Old Town of Eaton Museum

Well the Goddess of Summer has graced us with another wonderful summer week.  My own week has been busy trying to catch up with all the work I have neglected, however, I thought I would take the time to send a little more history your way.  

This history is on another of the many ponds and lakes that dot our beautiful Southern Madison County area, Lebanon Reservoir.  I am still a bit under the weather so will get back to you local blog readers with a date for our evening speaking event to benefit the Old Town of Eaton Museum.  I have decided to come out of retirement and speak for a meeting of the Friends of the Old Town of Eaton Museum to raise local awareness of its rich history and its very historic past. Date to follow.

Though located in today’s Town of Lebanon, the water that flowed from this reservoir made its way via feeders to Eaton’s Leland Pond and Woodman Pond areas, where it was distributed to the canal.

This Reservoir has had two names, an old one that is very historic and a new one that is known by everyone. Kingsleybrook Reservoir is one such place. Today, we know this body of water surrounded by camps and homes as a sparkling gem, where fishing, swimming, boating and camping is enjoyed, as Lebanon Reservoir. Its original name and one still used on some maps however, is Kingsleybrook Reservoir.

Kingsley Brook, a fast-flowing stream, provides the water to this reservoir, a reservoir that once fed the Chenango Canal. The reservoir was added after the initial start of the proposed canal to insure that there would be enough water to run the canal during dry times. The dam was contracted in the fall of 1835, and scheduled to be completed by November of the following year.

During the process, it was decided to raise the proposed height by 15 feet, it was noted that this would only take a small additional part of land, but would increase the capacity of the reservoir by 80 percent. The addition of the height was never accomplished.

After a horrible freshet occurred in April of 1843, the dam was breached and was severely damaged, estimates for the repair came to over $8,000 ( a pittance in our time). The canal engineers and commissioners felt that this dam and reservoir could be dispensed with, and consequently did not repair it.

By 1864, more water was needed to insure navigation on the canal because of leaking canal walls and decapitated locks, plus the addition of a proposed extension, so work was begun to rebuild the Kingsleybrook Reservoir. This time, the dam was raised the additional number of feet (15) and the dam was completed in 1867. The additional number of feet increased the capacity of the reservoir by over 100 percent. When the Chenango Canal no longer needed its water it became labels Lebanon Reservoir!

Heres a video.. 

Summer is here..thoughts of Lake Ontario, Lighthouses, West Wing & the "Big Cheese"...

The first day of summer has caused me to be very depressed.  I swore to myself that this year on the first day of summer I would be at Lake Ontario visiting my favorite landmark the old Selkirk Lighthouse.  This is also the place that a close friend and I want our ashes spread.  Hers are there now.....and I need to visit.

As children and as an  adult I have spent many summers on the beach near by and there so many memories of those family trips still come to mind... from fishing to sailing!

Tourists occasionally wander down to the marina at the mouth of the Salmon River and discover this old landmark that  looks like it dropped down from a time of sailing ships and double-masted schooners... Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it still stands towering above the water with a near by a shell of the old hotel where sailing ships docked, and guests stayed in the hot summers of the past.

Built in 1838, this venerable relic has one of the few “bird cage” light surrounds left on Lake Ontario. Costing the United States Government seventy-five hundred dollars, the building escaped the renovation of many of the lake’s lighthouses because of being scheduled to be decommissioned (which it was) in 1858. It was built because many thought that by putting a lighthouse near the lake in what was considered a dangerous area known for shipwrecks, and by dredging a deep channel in front, it would become a large port, which it was for a while. 

Unfortunately, its neighbor Oswego to the west took its business because of its link to Syracuse via the Oswego River and Canal.

Today, the port is just a sleepy reminder of a by gone era, except for fall when sportsmen arrive for the Salmon run which has replaced the Sturgeon fishing of the past.. In the old days the lighthouse would dock Great Lake schooners, allowing the local area to receive and send goods of all varieties. 

It’s most notable cargo however, few know about, even though a segment mentioning it was on the television show West Wing. In this episode Leo McGerry reminds everyone that it is cheese day and relates the story of President Andrew Jackson receiving a huge cheese and having it set in the White House’s main room, threw the doors open and invited the public into “their house” so that every citizen could share in the bounty.

The cheese that is recorded to have weighed over 1,400 pounds was made near Sandy Creek by Col. Meacham and was transported first by sets of gray horses to Pulaski and then on to the port where it was shipped via schooner and the canal system to Washington, D.C. The man who made it, Col. Meacham, was noted for his showmanship. The Colonel also made 500-pound cheeses fro the Vice President and the Governor of New York.

The hotel next to the Lighthouse ran for many years and was noted for its German Cuisine and dances. This building is now just a vacant and broken remnant of a time gone by when ladies and gentlemen summered by the lake.

I love sitting out near it in bad weather since it is a spectacular place to view an upcoming storm and last night would have been a great place to view the large full moon!

I always dream of  renting a room in the lighthouse for the night and enjoying the light at night which is now a solar light with the lighthouse was recommissioned in 1989. 

Today it once again acts as a useful navigational marker and a marker for the different parts of my life which I hope to get back to if I can ever get this museum roof project done!  Go and visit it and tell it I sent you....you will be glad you did...really!

Oh well ...I will sing....sing along with me and James Taylor....Up On A Roof!

The summer like heat has made me think about Old Forge!!!

This week I have an urge to think "Summer"...must be the heat...and take a trip up the Adirondacks and Old Forge.  My brother has been remodeling his place up there and I could snap a few "going along" pictures for fun and then I could visit the Old Forge Hardware Store and wander around looking at all the stuff it contains.  After a ton of visits you can never really see everything that is in that store. 

 Of course being a history buff...on one of my trips up I did some research on the Old Forge Hardware Store and its founder...Moses A. Cohen.... and it is a really interesting story!

Moses A. Cohen was a Lithuanian immigrant who came to America to

join his brother at the young age of 16. Moses started as a pack

peddler, walking a route through the wilderness of the Adirondacks

near the Saranac River, eventually going into a retail business with his

brother David, in Bloomington, New York. As a pack peddler he was

known to carry a 100-pound pack to cabin or house, from place to

place. A friend of many, he was a successful man who knew the value

of the honesty of a merchant, something he had learned from his

father in Lithuania when they would go many miles to town and bring

back goods to sell in their neighborhood.

Eventually, bought out by his brother David, he wandered into a place

called Old Forge with a wife and an old horse with a cart of goods,

setting up a business in rented rooms. When he had enough money

he built a store. With the burgeoning retail market caused by the influx

of people to this vast scenic area and the opening of lumber mills to fill

their building needs, his store took an important place in the village as

a source for goods and supplies.

This building, built for about $10,000, burned in the 1920’s causing a

great loss to the Cohen family. Never one to give up, Moses rebuilt the

building and today, as the Old Forge Hardware, the Cohen Building

stands as a Mecca for travelers and visitors to today’s Old Forge. No

longer in the family, it is still a must see for tourists in the Old Forge

area, and it still carries anything anyone could ever need.

Cohen was an important man in Old Forge for many reasons,

becoming its first bank director, a 50-year Mason, and a founding

director of the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mt. Lake. This immigrant

pack peddler also became one of the largest landowners in the

Adirondack region. With his son, he was responsible for the building of

the Enchanted Forest, Howard Johnson’s and was a mover in getting a

ski center to Old Forge.

In 1976, to honor his father, A. Richard Cohen donated their residence

to the community so that it could act as the library and today their house is

providing services to community members and visitors - a wonderful

monument to the Cohen family that invested not only its time and

money, but its "heart" to a region that is one of the scenic wonders of

America.  

Take a drive up and enjoy the day and a visit to this historic business and look around you might see me wandering about wishing I could buy everything!.